''The Ref'' (''Hostile Hostages'' in some countries) is a 1994 BlackComedy film directed by Ted Demme and starring Creator/DenisLeary, Judy Davis, and Creator/KevinSpacey.

Leary plays Gus, a cat burglar who breaks into the house of a millionaire in the hopes of pulling off a job that will let him retire, but he gets tripped up by an... ''eccentric'' trap and suddenly has to hide out from the bungling local cops until his partner Murray can secure a way to escape after the entire area is put on alert. To avoid the police patrolling the streets, Gus takes Lloyd and Caroline Chasseur (a highly dysfunctional middle class suburban couple) hostage so he can hide out in their home until the escape is ready. There are just two problems; 1) Lloyd and Caroline are so dysfunctional and angry with each other that they would rather fight than pay any attention to Gus, and 2) it's Christmas Eve and everyone from Lloyd and Caroline's bright delinquent son Jesse (Robert J. Steinmiller Jr.) to their whole extended family is coming over for dinner. (And since this is 1994 and cell phones are ''very'' far from common, there's no way to call the Christmas dinner off.)

HilarityEnsues.

When Murray can't arrange an escape prior to the extended family arriving, Gus gets Lloyd and Caroline to pass him off as their therapist so he can continue hiding from the cops and make sure they won't blow his cover. However, with all the nasty, petty resentments rising to the surface within the family, it's quite likely that Gus' rapidly dwindling sanity will run out before he can get out of town.

----!!Tropes:

* FiveFiveFive: The number to Lloyd's house, as reported by Gus. Also, Winslow Harbors.* AngryGuardDog: A rottweiler. Named Cannibal.* AssholeVictim: Lloyd and Caroline at first, and Lloyd's mother at the end.* BigScrewedUpFamily: Lloyd's family embodies this trope and ''then'' some. Lloyd is a spineless mama's boy who goes crying back to her when things don't go his way, his son is a juvenile delinquent, and his brother is just as bad and married to an annoying shrew of a woman who walks all over him. The brother and shrew do have some well-adjusted kids, though.* {{Blackmail}}: Jesse's latest scheme is blackmailing the head of his military school.* BlackSheep: Lloyd and Caroline's son Jesse is the family's black sheep.* BoobyTrap: The sort that sprays you with cat urine, opens a trap door under your feet, and sends you down a chute where you crash right in front of a very large guard dog. Interesting security there...* BoundAndGagged: Aside from Gus and Lloyd's niece and nephew, just about every single character spends part of the movie in this state.* ChildrenAreInnocent: Subverted, as Gary and Connie's two kids are hugely entertained by the spectacle of their adult family members descending into profanity-laced tirades against each other, and even gleefully help Gus gag their (admittedly evil) grandmother.* ClusterFBomb: Gus' tirade at the end of the film. This trope could apply to the whole film as well.* DoTheyKnowItsChristmasTime: Subverted throughout the movie, then [[spoiler: played almost straight at the end.]]** {{Lampshaded}} and Defied in an exchange between Connie and her daughter, Mary, about the "criminal on the loose":--->'''Mary:''' Maybe they'll catch him and let him go in the spirit of Christmas.--->'''Connie:''' That is not the spirit of Christmas. The spirit of Christmas is either you're good or you're punished and you burn in hell. * TheDogBitesBack:** Lloyd and Caroline are anything but meek hostages towards Gus. This can also apply to when Lloyd's family turns on his mother at the end, [[spoiler: Lloyd's sister-in-law even going so far as to give Gus permission to shoot her.]]** Also the town Santa, who turns out to be a mean drunk.** Being fired wouldn't be so bad, if most of us had a comeback available like the one Lt. Huff does.* DeadpanSnarker: Lloyd and Gus.* DysfunctionJunction: ... oooooh boy. There is a ''lot'' of this going on with the Chasseur family.* EvenEvilHasStandards: Pretty much ''every'' character in relation to Madame Chasseur, no matter how unlikeable or criminal themselves. Even the shrewish Connie [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap rescues herself from the scrappy heap]] when she finally snaps and turns on her mother-in-law. "[[ItMakesSenseInContext Slipper socks! Medium!]]"* EveryoneHatesFruitCakes: The town Santa goes door to door giving away home-made fruitcakes. The Chasseurs throw it away the moment he leaves.* EvilDebtCollector: Caroline regards Lloyd's mother as this due to the fact that they're living in ''her'' house ''and'' paying her rent. When Lloyd gives her the next payment, she even remarks "we'll have to see what happens with interest rates in the new year." Even Gus calls her out on this, saying that he knows {{Loan Shark}}s more forgiving and generous than her. It's worth noting that she is apparently charging Lloyd ''18% interest'' on the loan she made him.* EvilMatriarch: Lloyd's mother is the head of the Chasseur family, and seems to almost take pleasure in being awful to the rest of her family.* HighSchoolHustler: There are very strong hints that Jesse was a less than lighthearted version of this trope, and this along with other {{Delinquent}} tendencies are what caused Lloyd to send Jesse to military school. Jesse responded by [[UpToEleven photographing the commandant of his school in the midst of an affair and blackmailing the guy]].* HotBlooded: When he can keep his head, Gus is a fairly intelligent DeadpanSnarker. Unfortunately for Gus, most of the time his temper is getting the better of him, and he responds by lashing out at anything nearby and only causes more chaos in doing so.* IgnoredEnemy: Gus often winds up being the ignored one so other people can argue and fight, usually over rather petty issues. This generally only ends when he pulls out his gun.* [[BadCopIncompetentCop Incompetent Cop, Even More Incompetent Cop]]: The entire local police force is like this, except DaChief. The most notable example of their stupidity comes when they accidentally record over the footage from the house security camera with a part of ''Film/ItsAWonderfulLife''.* ItsAllMyFault: Lloyd says this sarcastically during his climactic speech at the Christmas tree, when he calls Caroline out for being just as much to blame for the state of their marriage as he is due to her indecisiveness, her desire to live beyond her means, and forcing him to make all the tough decisions in their lives:-->'''Lloyd:''' I told you what moving here could mean, but ''you'' were the one who said we should consider it! Not the actual ''moving,'' just the ''considering.'' The actual moving ''in'' part was left to ''me!'' Why? Because you didn't know what to do. You were... confused; you didn't know if it was the right thing. But you were sure as hell sick and tired of living in a one-bedroom apartment in New York City, so don't hand me that 'it was the best of times' bullshit! You didn't want to work anymore and you didn't want any help with the baby because you wanted to do it all by yourself! And you ''hated'' New York because we weren't as rich as your college friends were to enjoy it! We couldn't afford a bigger place, and you were ''miserable'' being around people who ''could!'' AND... we were up to our EARS in debt! But moving ''here'' was ''my'' decision! RIGHT! And the loan was the same situation!* ItsPronouncedTroPAY: Both Lloyd and Jesse Chasseur make a RunningGag out of correcting mispronunciations of their last name. "It's pronounced chas-OOHR! It's 18th century French Huguenot!"* {{Jerkass}}: Lloyd's mother. While everyone else is varying degrees of flawed, she's the one one who's a complete, unapologetic bitch.-->'''Gus:''' Lady, your husband ain't dead. [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere He's hiding]].* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Gus shows sign of this at times.* LaughingMad: When Gus finally gets Murray on the phone, Murray explains that he's hooked up with a woman on a boat that they can use to get out of town. Except the boat has some mechanical problems. Gus abruptly drops the phone to his side and just starts laughing while holding his other hand over his face. Considering that Gus is a very short-tempered DeadpanSnarker, it's quite clear his stay with the family has started to [[SanitySlippage wear on his sanity.]]* LethalChef: Apparently Caroline. The rest of the family stops to eat dinner before getting to her house so they won't have to eat any more of her cooking than they have to. Part of the problem is that she appears to specialize in Scandinavian ForeignQueasine.* MamaBear: Connie. Her first hint of open defiance towards "Mother Rose" (whom she's been sucking up to the entire movie) occurs in response to a jab at her son's weight. Not that it stops her kids from gagging her with duct tape later.* MommasBoy: Lloyd, big time. It's implied that he has spent his whole life being abused and broken down by his mother, but he continues to be a dutiful son and try to stay in her good graces/win her affection... until the end of the film when he finally snaps at her.* MyBelovedSmother: Lloyd and his brother are living, breathing examples of this trope...[[spoiler: at first.]]* NostalgiaFilter: Caroline definitely has one for her and Lloyd's days as a young couple in UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity. As seen in the quote under ItsAllMyFault, Lloyd finally calls her on it.* OldShame: In-universe, Lloyd's ill-fated restaurant is this to him.* OneLastJob: The job at the start of the movie is supposed to be Gus' last big job to let him retire. So much for that...* OnlySaneMan: Gus and the local police chief. One could also argue that Jesse, (Lloyd and Caroline's son) mostly falls under this category, although it's somewhat undermined by his need to act out via petty acts of delinquency and rebellion, regardless of how dumb and needless said acts of delinquency might be.* PrecisionFStrike: Mostly carpet bombing, but there is one nicely-timed unison strike by the Chasseurs ''against their marriage counselor''.* PunctuatedForEmphasis: When Gus forces Caroline and Lloyd to admit that they lie to each other.-->You saw the stop sign, didn't you Lloyd? You. Saw. The. Stop. Sign. Didn't you? Yes! So you too, are a liar. Capital L. Small i. Small a. Small r. ''Period''.* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Gus tosses these around like candy, although almost everyone gets in one the act at some point. Also, when Jesse asks to become Gus' apprentice, Gus not only tells Jesse why Jesse sucks, but also explains why Gus himself sucks.-->Let me explains something to you kid. What I do, running around stealing shit, that may sound great when you're 15 years old, but it sucks just a little bit when you're 35, you got no family, no house, I've got a partner who's a 56 year old alcoholic who can't figure out why they took ''Series/HappyDays'' off the air, and then I got to turn on the TV everyday and see kids like you, one after another on these talk shows, you got everything, opportunities up the ass, you got a family to come home to, and what do you do? You sit around, and you bitch and you moan, because things don't go your way. Well, you know what kid, welcome to the real world where most times, things don't go your fucking way.* RecklessGunUsage: In the scene where Gus holds a gun to Rose's head and threatens to fire ([[CrowningMomentOfFunny "Go ahead, shoot her." ]]). Due to their positioning, if Gus fired he would either end up shooting himself or giving his eyes and face a serious powder burn.* RichBitch: Lloyd's mother. And ''how.''* RunningGag: See ItIsPronouncedTroPAY above. Also, ''everyone'' comments about the cat urine smell stuck to Gus.* TheScrooge: Lloyd's mother. With all the money she has, the best things that she can buy her family for Christmas are slipper socks, a hideous sweatshirt, and husky-sized underwear.* ShutUpHannibal: "''Mother...''is it possible for you to shut the fuck up for ten seconds?"* SlapSlapKiss: The parents. Although it's more like slap slap slap slap slap slap slap slap slap almost-kiss, with the slaps being verbal rather than physical...* SmugSnake: Lloyd's mother. And ''how.''* SnarkToSnarkCombat: If the Chasseur family's bickering were any more caustic, it could dissolve silverware. This movie has some of the most magnificently vicious snarking ever committed to film. * TakeThat: There's a character named Siskel, and he's played by J.K. Simmons. The resemblance to film critic Creator/GeneSiskel is not a coincidence. (Gene Siskel gave ''Film/TheFisherKing'', another movie by the same screenwriter, a negative review.)* TookALevelInKindness: The Chasseurs became less of a bickering {{Jerkass}} DysfunctionalFamily and more of a JerkWithAHeartOfGold family once Gus enters their lives.* WomenAreWiser: Generally subverted. Caroline tends to come off as more sympathetic, nurturing and understanding than Lloyd, but she's also caused just as many screw ups in the marriage as Lloyd has, complete with refusing to take any responsibility in major life decisions for the Chasseurs and later having a SelfServingMemory about the past. And the other major female characters are an EvilMatriarch and Connie the shrew, so...* YouNeedToGetLaid:** At the very beginning of the movie Caroline voices this opinion of Lloyd's mother. In a therapy session of theirs when Lloyd mentions that their son Jesse started an escort service in 9th grade by passing around Lloyd's mother's phone number, Caroline snaps back "And I still say getting laid by an 18 year old linebacker is ''just what she needs!''"** Also, Caroline and Lloyd apparently haven't had sex in years, at least according to Caroline.** Caroline hits Lloyd with a devastating one, regarding ''his mother:'' "[[MamasBoy Why don't you just sleep with her and get it over with]]?" Even ''Gus'' is stunned and has nothing to say in response to ''that'' one.